Police reportedly seize South Korea's largest crypto exchange Bithumb

[JakobFugger]

In August the same police had taken action against coinbit. The reason was different from this. But it is curious how actions of this type are becoming more frequent. The question is: Would they have the same attitude against banks?

HSBC is still standing after all the proven complaints about international money laundering.

An action of this type and with this truculence affects several people worldwide. And those who receive this informatioin advance can make millions. If this pattern by the government continues, it will be bad for the market. This country is an important part of an entire ecosystem having several exchanges between the main and largest in the world.


https://www.coindesk.com/south-korea-crypto-exchange-coinbit-seized-allegations-fraud-wash-trading

[pixie85]

Well, there you have it, the reason why the market went down today:
https://bitcoinity.org/markets/bitstamp/USD

At least this whole thing has nothing to do with major cryptos like BTC or ETH but rather a sketchy token. The drop in the btc price was probably caused by korean panic sellers shitting bricks after reading the headlines    cheap coins before we test 12k again? decent short-term profits =P

I though that today's downside movement was pure volatility as usual, but turns out there's a reason for that, huh. Well, that's nice, it means that we'll recover quickly when the panic will subside, and 12k will indeed be retested soon. It's kinda strange that such small and insignificant in the long term news can still shake the market, only shows that the liquidity of Bitcoin market is still pretty low.

I wouldn't call this raid "the reason".

The same price action could be observed in the beginning of last month where the price went 12 thousand to 10.5 in 1h. Was there an exchange raided on that date as well?

Most likely a big mine is seling once a month or some rich investor is getting rid of his investment in a slow pace so that it doesn't crash the market completely.

[CaVO32]

In August the same police had taken action against coinbit. The reason was different from this. But it is curious how actions of this type are becoming more frequent. The question is: Would they have the same attitude against banks?

HSBC is still standing after all the proven complaints about international money laundering.

An action of this type and with this truculence affects several people worldwide. And those who receive this informatioin advance can make millions. If this pattern by the government continues, it will be bad for the market. This country is an important part of an entire ecosystem having several exchanges between the main and largest in the world.


https://www.coindesk.com/south-korea-crypto-exchange-coinbit-seized-allegations-fraud-wash-trading

Maybe there are investors that tipped the police to do this raid. Because if you are an investor and lost millions, what are you gonna do? Of course, as much as possible you want to recover it from the individuals or team involved and if your action is futile, you will go to the authorities. Because the authorities will not have an idea of what's happening if no one will give them the situation at hand. So kudos to their police, because they are really doing their job and not influenced by any corruption. Bithumb is really known SK crypto exchange. So this move, is really welcome to the community and will serve as a warning to other crypto exchanges located in their country to avoid trade manipulation and other illegal activities.

[Oasisman]

~snip~

Now, I wonder why they raided by the police. I thought that bithumb is trusted ande safe haven cryptocurrency exchange but all of my expectation was removed by their performance. It just affect the momentum of every coins in the market. Now, that one of the largest crypto exchange was alleged to be fraud. They might lose some of their traders and I think it will really affect the current condition of market. If bithumb was found guilty, then all of traders in bithumb might hop to other exchange. I don`t know why does a catalyst always exist when the market is having a greenish days.

Well, that's the reality about "never store cryptos in the exchanges" because even the most reliable and trusted exchange can turn into an untrusted exchange in an instant once their bad deeds got exposed. Just like this as the major example.
So, traders and investors jumped out of that ship, withdraw and sold everything they have in that exchange (panic) because of this news, thus this for sure is one of the major reasons why Btc crashed 5% after hitting $12,000.

[Baofeng]

What now? People will withdraw funds from Bithumb, this mass movement of funds will definitely cause little panic and price would go down again. True?

Waiting for Bithumb answer. I expect they will refute the act of police raid. Like Binance did last year, when there were news about police in their office in Shanghai.

Not sure if the funds are going to be on-hold while investigations are rolling, so it's early to speculate wherein this news is the real cause of the sudden down trend, or maybe someone took advantage of the news to drive the price down to easily scope cheap bitcoin.

Anyhow, let's see, we are in a sort of mini bull run and I don't think that any news will have a long term effect in the market. Maybe next week we will see that we have bounce back again and nearing $11,800-$12k, I remain optimistic.

[ultrloa]

What now? People will withdraw funds from Bithumb, this mass movement of funds will definitely cause little panic and price would go down again. True?

Waiting for Bithumb answer. I expect they will refute the act of police raid. Like Binance did last year, when there were news about police in their office in Shanghai.

Not sure if the funds are going to be on-hold while investigations are rolling, so it's early to speculate wherein this news is the real cause of the sudden down trend, or maybe someone took advantage of the news to drive the price down to easily scope cheap bitcoin.

Anyhow, let's see, we are in a sort of mini bull run and I don't think that any news will have a long term effect in the market. Maybe next week we will see that we have bounce back again and nearing $11,800-$12k, I remain optimistic.

Well we should not give any relation regarding on reason of dumps or either any of it regarding on situation since I think is normal happening especially if there's illegal things will happen and I don't think it will affect on certain things since there's no massive selling will happen and for sure the trader there will go on other exchange and do their trades again.

[Sanugarid]

~snip~

Now, I wonder why they raided by the police. I thought that bithumb is trusted ande safe haven cryptocurrency exchange but all of my expectation was removed by their performance. It just affect the momentum of every coins in the market. Now, that one of the largest crypto exchange was alleged to be fraud. They might lose some of their traders and I think it will really affect the current condition of market. If bithumb was found guilty, then all of traders in bithumb might hop to other exchange. I don`t know why does a catalyst always exist when the market is having a greenish days.

Well, that's the reality about "never store cryptos in the exchanges" because even the most reliable and trusted exchange can turn into an untrusted exchange in an instant once their bad deeds got exposed. Just like this as the major example.

Main reason why I don't let my asset sleep in an exchange is because of this, one day there will be hacker or the exchange itself that will click this alarm button for everyone. It doesn't matter how good the rating of the exchange is, how popular it is, as there is a bad deed there will be more of a incident like this, the root is the money. But I don't wanna blame the entire Bithumb, there are employees out there who is just doing their jobs.

So, traders and investors jumped out of that ship, withdraw and sold everything they have in that exchange (panic) because of this news, thus this for sure is one of the major reasons why Btc crashed 5% after hitting $12,000.

Hmmm. This might be one of the reason why it crashed, but you know I think people are just waiting for bitcoin to reach $12K before pulling out. We don't really know, this is why I love bitcoin  

[Questat]

If this incident was indeed true then I'm afraid, Bithumb will suffer a major blow to its credibility and it would be good that they should settle it at once

This will be a huge blow for the Bithumb, even if they prove this allegation false, this will affect their credibility as cryptocurrency exchange. I bet people now on bithumb is moving out, this is what most of people usually do when their platform gets into this kind of situation. Too bad for Bithumb.

On the other hand, we can also see this giving a positive effect on their reputation since it was proven false and I believe that's how crypto people look at a platform, they trust the one which proven to be legit. You might look at what happen to Binance, they got hacked, but does it affect their reputation negatively? No, in fact their trading volume has increase significantly.

[piebeyb]

Well, there you have it, the reason why the market went down today:


https://bitcoinity.org/markets/bitstamp/USD

At least this whole thing has nothing to do with major cryptos like BTC or ETH but rather a sketchy token. The drop in the btc price was probably caused by korean panic sellers shitting bricks after reading the headlines    cheap coins before we test 12k again? decent short-term profits =P

i don't think the market is down at the moment because of the news coming from korea, i am not sure the news can beat a trend, maybe we will test it again $ 12k, people are taking the opportunity to buy it cheap, quick profits, but by the way bitcoinity.org i think already closed, apparently it can still be accessed

[Darker45]

This is a major blow to cryptocurrency trading in South Korea. Bithumb is the country's largest crypto exchange and even making it to the top ten cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of 24-hour trading volume.

Fake volume, that is.
All of them were pumping up their numbers like there was no tomorrow.

Well, I agree, of course. They're all guilty of the same crime, although in varying degrees. And I suppose, in all fairness, Bithumb is not comparable with P2PB2B's very obvious bloated trading volume due to wash trading.

We got rid of two scammy exchanges that were manipulating volume and trades, what's the bad news in it?

That is good news, of course, although if the authorities will order all exchanges involved in volume and trade manipulations to cease and desist operations, we might end up with no exchanges at all. Well, I'm not sure if this is good or bad.

[so98nn]

[...]
For me, this is good news, although it is also sad news at the same time. This is a statement that crypto companies have to shape up.

This is the main reason why crypto market is seen with suspicion eye sight and many governments are banning the crypto to protect their traditional assets. Now, if they have stolen the money of their investors then surely it is gonna be hidden somewhere as black money and thus pulling the untiled taxes, people's money and much more.

This is very bad in terms of future outlook of government and even people who have lost the money through such act.

First we used to fear out due to fraud exchangers which are not in top 10 list. Now, here we are even the world's best exchangers are topping the house!

[Yogee]

Too bad but at least we know authorities in South Korea are serious in going after illicit activities of these exchanges.

.....
Now, I wonder why they raided by the police. I thought that bithumb is trusted ande safe haven cryptocurrency exchange but all of my expectation was removed by their performance.

Did you just learned about Bithumb in 2020? Lucius clearly pointed out the reasons why it shouldn't be trusted. One more thing, cryptocurrency exchanges are not safe havens. I'm sure you know the old adage "not your keys, not your coins".

.... The issues steams from 2018, so I don't know why it took them 2 years though.

Police can't just barge in upon mere suspicion can they? At least they need to gather evidence to have a strong case against the exchange execs and that takes time too.

[Lorence.xD]

Too bad but at least we know authorities in South Korea are serious in going after illicit activities of these exchanges.

When the post said seizure in South Korea, I know fo a fact that there is nothing to be worried about, authorities are very hard when it comes to fraud in South Korea.

[Yogee]

Too bad but at least we know authorities in South Korea are serious in going after illicit activities of these exchanges.

When the post said seizure in South Korea, I know fo a fact that there is nothing to be worried about, authorities are very hard when it comes to fraud in South Korea.

When you have funds in there, that is something to be worried about  . It could be locked in there until the case is over. Nobody wants their funds to stuck while they could made profitable trades using it. News like this affects the market price  somehow. If you're late for the news, you will be left with a negative portfolio.

[EdenHazard]

Well, there you have it, the reason why the market went down today:


https://bitcoinity.org/markets/bitstamp/USD

At least this whole thing has nothing to do with major cryptos like BTC or ETH but rather a sketchy token. The drop in the btc price was probably caused by korean panic sellers shitting bricks after reading the headlines    cheap coins before we test 12k again? decent short-term profits =P

i don't think the market is down at the moment because of the news coming from korea, i am not sure the news can beat a trend, maybe we will test it again $ 12k, people are taking the opportunity to buy it cheap, quick profits, but by the way bitcoinity.org i think already closed, apparently it can still be accessed

I wouldn't say it has not any effect for sure there is.

But other than that it's just a natural response on how holders overreacting,  this might temporary, no need to worry bout this .
Besides that the -3% to -10% daily still considered as an organic movement, market swing with the uncertainty so far.
Every trader aware about this and some has predicted that the support is being tested at $11,000 thing will be getting bad when it breaks $10,000.

However i can only see that the source come from cointelegraph & coindesk only? Any other reliable sources to dig in?

[slaman29]

This would be really bad news for the SK industry. Bithumb was supposed to be the biggest and the best, also first to get legal with the crypto license, so this will prove critics' words that regulations is not enough as crypto exchanges are crooks. I suppose this is what caused the crash over the last 24 hours?

[TravelMug]

This would be really bad news for the SK industry. Bithumb was supposed to be the biggest and the best, also first to get legal with the crypto license, so this will prove critics' words that regulations is not enough as crypto exchanges are crooks. I suppose this is what caused the crash over the last 24 hours?

I'm not sure if the news causes the 'flash crash' that we have seen. But it will have a massive effect for our South Korean crypto enthusiast that's for sure. It's their top exchanges for many years now and this news really change the complexion on how they are going to look at exchanges again.

And South Korean is turning the heat up with their local exchanges investigations. Coinbit was first, we didn't even see the market nudge. And yeah, probably critics will try to spin this news and put crypto a bad name again.

[bitsurfer2014]

If this incident was indeed true then I'm afraid, Bithumb will suffer a major blow to its credibility and it would be good that they should settle it at once

This will be a huge blow for the Bithumb, even if they prove this allegation false, this will affect their credibility as cryptocurrency exchange. I bet people now on bithumb is moving out, this is what most of people usually do when their platform gets into this kind of situation. Too bad for Bithumb.

The negative publicity itself would do some kind of damage to the company and  could also have side effects to the morale of some South Korean crypto enthusiasts.

Aside from that, I think some of its customers would take precaution into putting funds on that exchange or worst, they would stay away from it thinking that there is a big possibility that their accounts will be frozen or would be jeopardized should they were found guilty and authorities act accordingly like stopping the exchange's operation.

[Leviathan.007]

After this negative fundamental news we can nearly say the market falling down. And this will make a chance for the people to buy bitcoin at lower prices. According to what we saw before on the crypto market, these negative fundamental news will temporary effect the price and market will do some emotional movements. However, as we saw before, after just a few day and stability of the price, we will see the market on the good and even better situations once again.

[LogitechMouse]

Am I the only one seeing this news as a good thing??
If you are an investor then this is a good news since the market is affected by this news causing the prices to go down or this isn't the one affected Bitcoin and other coins' price.

Perfect time to accumulate more Bitcoin rather than buying it near the $12,000. Feel sad for the investors though since Bithumb is one of the largest crypto exchanges right now. I'm curious what will happen to the exchange right now and how this news will affect their reputation to their users.